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RV-7 Construction Log
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Date: 5-20-2012
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Number of Hours: 4.25
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Manual Reference: p 7-3
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Brief Description: Wing Main Ribs
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I got up early and knocked out notch deburring on 5 more main ribs before breakfast, and the last 5 afterwards. In reality, this job is probably less than half done, as there are still the leading edge and tank ribs to do, and they have lots more notches (nose end) to fiddle with. :O(
Next up was fluting, which I was able to get done on all 28 in just over an hour using the edge of my workbench as a reference (Photo 1). I was able to get most ribs to the point of not being able to see between the bench and rib web by fluting roughly every other space between rib holes. What seemed to work best for me was to start in the middle, work toward one end, then come back and work toward the other end. Note that not all flutes are created equal...
Next up was drilling the conduit holes. I located the first #30 pilot hole on a left flanged rib aft of the forward stiffener ring 1.25 inches above the bottom flange (Photo 2). l laid this rib back to back on all right-flanged ribs and used it as a jig for drilling. Likewise, I used the first right-flanged rib I drilled as a jig for the rest of the left-flanged ribs. The aft tooling hole is in the same location for all three rib types, so I just put a 3/16 cleco in, and used a small block to align the flanges near the forward end of the ribs. Once I located all the pilot holes, I went back and enlarged to 3/4", my largest unibit. Another builder says this is adequate to coax the flexible conduit through, but I will check to be sure before riveting the ribs to the spars.
After assembling the left skeleton (big milestone, to me at least) I reamed the rear spar to rib holes to #30, dimpled both outboard rib aft flanges to mate with the rear spars, and match drilled the offset mounting holes in two of the main rib aft flanges in the wing walk area.
I got all this done before heading out to the airport for a barbeque and solar eclipse viewing.
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I fluted the main ribs using the workbench edge as a reference.
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Pilot hole for locating conduit holes.
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Assembled left wing skeleton. Beginning to look like a wing!
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